Clean Up, Clean up. Everybody, Everywhere.

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If my memory serves me well, the above title is from a certain kids’ TV show that my four kids always watched. Somehow, the message of the TV moment never transferred to any of those wonderful children who are now all in their 20s. But, like many of our kids’ favorite electronic faves, I can’t get the words out of my mind. But, I can apply it to a good practice regarding Raiser’s Edge/NXT.

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It’s important to keep your data clean. As I just advised a “youngster” who is beginning her career at a large nonprofit that uses RE, if your data isn’t correctly entered, your reports will not be accurate.

This ranges from proper addressee/salutations, genders, and constituent codes, to gift types, attributes, prospect ratings and more.

Let me give you an example. When I started my current job, our RE featured more than 25 different prospect status types. Some were duplicates in meaning but using different words. Others made little sense and the “owners” were no longer working at our foundations. That required a cleanup along with a discussion amongst all of our gift officers and gift processors about the reason for this change.

I think it’s essential that everyone using that aspect of RE is involved in not only the announcement about the cleanup effort, but it’s also a good practice to involve them in the discussion leading up to the change.

So, the next time you have some free time (next year???), take a moment to look at your data. Set up “clean up” queries in a “clean up” folder and get into the habit of running them regularly. Invite others to join in the fun. It’s a great way to make your fellow RE users feel a part of them team and it keeps your data sparkling clean.

(Community Manager's Note: This blog is an entry in our Summer School contest. It has not been vetted by the Raiser's Edge team for accuracy.)

News Organizational Best Practices Blog 07/24/2017 12:12pm EDT

Added by Mark Guncheon

23 Comments

Mark Guncheon Mar '19

Marilyn, what do you mean by "lost" constituents? As manager of a database used by 9 foundations, we control our constituents and where they belong with constituent codes and use security by constituent codes.

Marilyn Bellemore Mar '19

What are your methods for cleaning up "lost" constituents?

Melanie Lachcik Mar '19

Thanks for the encouragement! It can never be emphasized enough how much we need to have clean data!

Monica Wirts Aug '18

Prior to converting into RE NXT we spent countless hours cleaning up data. One of the things we made sure of, was that anyone updating the data was aware of the changes, why they were made and we created processes and procedures to ensure the data stayed as clean as possible. We continue to work on finding the time to ensure clean data, but we haven't set up queries for clean-ups--yet. That's a great idea!

Susan Chomsky Jun '18

I set up db maintenance queries in a separate folder and invited my db entry team to participate in the clean-up. It needs to become part of the scheduled tasks to get done. Still working on it.

Justin McMillin Jun '18

I wish we never had to clean up because we stayed clean and tidy... having 90+ admins in LO is a hassle!

Shawn Silva May '18

We are in the midst of a migration from another database, so our timing and coming across this article was very helpful - thanks!

Ash Elverfeld May '18

A colleague had the same recommendation for me, "set up a clean up folder with all your clean up queries." It's been super helpful for me keeping things clean-er. :)

Katie Vitale May '18

How do folks clean up the marital statuses in your RE?
How can a relationship labeled spouse in the relationships tab be upgraded to spouse on Bio 1 tab?

Terri Chambers May '18

"Goodness, but there's so much to clean up in this database!!" I have queries lists of these without birthdates, and these with invalid addresses, and these with no current phone number...and a board that seems too busy getting more people connected with us, with lack of information...gonna have to put my foot down and share with them a "required" information list before they're in our DB!

Mark Guncheon May '18

Here are a couple of weekly/monthly cleanup queries I use:
1. Check for new members of our giving society. These are based on total amounts donated ina calendar year so my query pulls those who have given at or abive a certain level who do not have a current membership.
2. Mrs. and Mr. - When a spouse is added to a woman's record, the addressee and salutations automatically turn Ms. Jane Doe into Ms. and Mr. Jane Doe. This query pulls all records with an added spouse and shows the addressee and Salutations for them.
3. MIssing gender - finds records with missing genders.
4. Ratings missing - finds files with no wealth ratings. All of our active donors should have wealth ratings.
Those are just some of the clean up queries I run.
Please share any you may run.

Emily Herberich Apr '18

great idea. I'm interested to know what sort of cleanup queries in particular you may run.

Mark Guncheon Apr '18

I would agree, Julie. I'm guessing that most of us have little time for "maintenance" of our database though it's extremely important Plus, most corrections take time to do depending on how large your database is and how often the mistake is repeated.

Julie Baker Apr '18

I think hardest is finding the time for clean up but it is necessary

Liz Ryan Apr '18

Great advice!

Adam Davenport Apr '18

As others have said, this is a never-ending process... but we keep at it!

Rose Mary Herbert Apr '18

I work in the ON products and just stepped into managing more of our RE database. Love the clean up!!

Philip Nawrocki Apr '18

We just went to the Omatic Connector and getting data clean is becoming very apparent. Will it be perfect, probably not, but we are going to strive to get it as close as possible. Lumiante and RE do not make this easy though. It is amazing these two Blackbaud products do not work better together by now.

roger berg Aug '17

Amen! I have to admit, I'll sometimes see a mistake on a record and think, "what idiot entered this one?" only to look at "properties" and see that the idiot was me!
One of the relationship types that I cleaned up was, "ask John Smith" - that's great, but John Smith had left the organization 3 years prior.
I'm a big proponent of organizing from General to specific - for example staying with the Relationship Type - why have, "son" and "daughter" and "mother" and "father" when "Child" and "Parent" will do?
Part of my periodic clean up audit queries include checking to make sure that:

gender matches title
General 2 tab on spouse is filled in (Gender, Primary addressee and Primary salutation not blank)
General 2 tab on contacts on Relationship Tab is filled in (Gender, Primary addressee and Primary salutation not blank)

Some headaches can be avoided by making certain fields mandatory and by using drop down tables for certain fields like "city", "title", and "suffix"

And yep - the song is stuck in my head now too :)

Kimberly GalandakOConnor Jul '17

Great question Pam! I would also like to know what you include in your "clean up" queries. At my org. we need to do some overhauling of RE!
Thanks :)